Wood veneer is highly desirable for many purposes including the covering of furniture with wood of appropriate grain and coloring. Because the veneer sheets are thin, difficult to handle without breakage, subject to warping and delamination when adhered due to environmental considerations, it is desirable to give the sheet stability by bonding the sheets to a substrate. Composite veneer laminates, i.e., veneer sheets bonded to a substrate, come in many forms such as paper backed veneer laminates in which the veneer sheet is glued directly to a paper substrate. The paper itself can have varying thicknesses as desired. Another common laminate is a fabric backed veneer laminate in which the veneer sheet is glued to a fabric of selected stiffness. An early composite laminate is found in U.S. Pat. No. 1,387,101 in which the veneer sheet is adhered to a box board paper intermediate layer and wire mesh reinforcement. An example of a wood to wood composite laminate is found in U.S. Pat. No. 2,356,625 that describes two sheets of veneer being bonded together with a matrix of saw dust and adhesive. Notably the sheets in this patent have their grains running in parallel directions. To provide stability to the composite, strips of veneer with the grains running perpendicular to the grain of the sheets were adhered thereto.
An important improvement to the aforementioned laminate is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,569,873 describing a composite laminate in which three veneer sheets are used. Two of the sheets are the face plies of the composite laminate while the third sheet is the center ply. The grains of the outer plies run in parallel directions. An adhesive is used to bond the three sheets. To provide structural integrity the center sheet has the grain running perpendicular to the grain of the outer face plies.
Still another type of composite laminate is the phenolic backed veneer sheet which has found great acceptance in the industry. In this case the integrity of the sheet is maintained by supplying a thick paper sheet impregnated with glue. The laminate is then adhered to a surface gluing the phenolic backing directly the article being covered. Phenolic backed laminates are characterized by durability but not flexibility and dimensional stability.
One problem with the composite laminates discussed above and others in the prior art is maintaining the appropriate balance between durability and flexibility. When fabricating composite laminates in an attempt to gain durability and dimensional stability under various atmospheric conditions, the result is generally a stiff laminate that is rigid. It is extremely difficult to post the laminate around articles to be covered without damaging the laminate itself. It is generally necessary to cut the laminate when reaching the edge of a corner and to start again with another piece of the laminate around the corner. The internal composition of the laminate will be readily apparent and be manifested in the form of a black line. To obscure or otherwise camouflage the black line, artisans often use moldings and the like that may not be suitable in many applications. Yet the additional wood ply or phenolic resin backing is required to provide the aforementioned stability and/or durability.
It is therefore a paramount object of the present invention to provide for a new composite veneer laminate made substantially of wood having good stability and durability which can be bent around tight radii of the structure to be covered and additionally does not display the dark line evidenced by prior art composite laminates even when cut and the edge thereof is exposed.
It is still another important object of the present invention to provide a method for making composite veneer laminates having improved stability, durability and flexibility and which minimize the visibility of internal construction of the laminate when viewed on edge.